Getting Messy

By now you may have realized that there's about a week delay on this blog. I make something on the weekend, I compose the blog during the week when I have a few minutes, and then I post it on Sunday. So, some of you already know that my most recent kitchen adventure was a messy one: marshmallows.

Now, to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of marshmallows. I mean, I enjoy a s'more once in a while, but I don't care for chocolate-covered marshmallow Santa figures at Christmas or marshmallow toppings on ice cream sundaes. The only time I've bought marshmallows in the past was to make cereal treats, and I could probably count the number of times I did that on one hand.

Nevertheless, among the many master recipes in my professional chocolatier course was one for marshmallows. And in the spirit of trying new things, I decided it was time to make them after years of seeing recipes on Pinterest.

I was very conflicted about the flavour I should make. Fruity? Boozy? I polled friends on facebook, but no consensus emerged. Finally, I decided I would try espresso. Partly this was practical -- I had espresso powder that needed to be used up. And partly it was about flavour -- espresso would work well in hot chocolate or on a s'more (or at least I thought it would) and the bitter, roasted flavour of espresso should help to combat the sweetness of marshmallow.

Now feeling much more confident heating sugar to obscene temperatures, the process really didn't bother me. I got it to 250 degrees like a pro and confidently poured the sugar syrup down the side of my mixer, which had espresso gelatin in it. About 12 or so minutes later, I had marshmallow. And wow was it sticky.

My KitchenAid is a bowl lift model. When I lowered the bowl, all of the marshmallow stayed suspended in the air, attached to the whisk. M'kay...

I sprayed a spatula with some oil and rooted in-between the wires until as much marshmallow fell into the bowl as possible. Then I did my best to scrape the marshmallow into a tray coated with icing sugar to set. Well, that was a laughable process. It really wasn't possible to scrape the bowl clean. At one point I made the mistake of trying to pull marshmallow off the spatula with my fingers. Ooops, that was a mess! Marshmallow on all the surfaces!

I set the pan aside and filled my sink with the hottest water possible to melt away the sugary mess. Surprisingly, the clean up was easier than expected.

And about 6 hours later, after cutting the slab into squares: perfection.

They were dense and pillowy at the same time. I had the little air bubbles that I was supposed to. I tried one and it tasted great -- not too sweet and the espresso wasn't overpowering.

I had my second in a cup of hot chocolate.

I packaged up a few for friends to try.

And then I had my third -- as a s'more made in my toaster oven. OMG. To die for!

This is what marshmallows should taste like.

During the making process, with the sticky mess around me (and on me), I swore I'd never make marshmallows again. But now that I've tasted them, I'm sure that I will.

And so the chocolate and confection adventures continue! What else should I try making? What's your favourite treat?